Interactions between effects of environmental chemicals and natural stressors: a review.
By M. Holmstrup, Anne-Mette Bindesbøl, G. Oostingh, A. Duschl, V. Scheil, H. Köhler, S. Loureiro, A. Soares, Abel L G Ferreira, C. Kienle and 6 more. Science of the Total Environment, 2010
790 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Ecotoxicological effect studies often expose test organisms under optimal environmental conditions. However, organisms in their natural settings rarely experience optimal conditions. On the contrary, during most of their lifetime they are forced to cope with sub-optimal conditions and occasionally with severe environmental stress. Interactions between the effects of a natural stressor and a toxicant can sometimes result in greater effects than expected from either of the stress types alone. The aim of the present review is to provide a synthesis of existing knowledge on the interactions between effects of "natural" and chemical (anthropogenic) stressors. More than 150 studies were evaluated covering stressors including heat, cold, desiccation, oxygen depletion, pathogens and immunomodulatory factors combined with a variety of environmental pollutants. This evaluation revealed that synergistic interactions between the effects of various natural stressors and toxicants are not uncommon phenomena. Thus, synergistic interactions were reported in more than 50% of the available studies on these interactions. Antagonistic interactions were also detected, but in fewer cases. Interestingly, about 70% of the tested chemicals were found to compromise the immune system of humans as judged from studies on human cell lines. The challenge for future studies will therefore be to include aspects of combined stressors in effect and risk assessment of chemicals in the environment.
Subfields: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis, Plant Science
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9259762f5e5a911575a9b4fbd6a8228fab9fd144
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In Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
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Citations in the corpus
- The Hidden and External Costs of Pesticide Use (2016, background): “Synergistic effects of pesticides and natural stressors, such as heat, desiccation, oxygen depletion and pathogens, have already been documented in many other classes of animals (Holmstrup et al. 2010 ).”
- Forecasting the relative influence of environmental and anthropogenic stressors on polar bears (2016, background): “Also, sub- lethal stressor effects can be cumulative (Holmstrup et al. 2010) and given that some of these stressors are relatively new to the Arctic (e.g., shipping and tourism), they may not have reached a level of intensity that elicits a measurable response from polar bears, or some of those…”
- Histopathological indicators: a useful fish health monitoring tool in common carp (Cyprinus carpio Linnaeus, 1758) culture (2013, positive): “Several studies have documented a relationship between water temperatures and the toxicity of different compounds in aquatic environments, including ammonium [19,36-38].”
- Reconceptualizing synergism and antagonism among multiple stressors (2015, background): “For example, Holmstrup et al. (2010) defined synergism and antagonism as “a convenient way to indicate combinations of a set of stressors that result in greater or lesser effects than expected from the single exposures” in their evaluation of 150 studies of stressors including heat, cold,…”